WO Patent 2004/011315 (Inventor: Staargaard et al; Published: 2004 Feb. 5; Assignee: General Electric Company, USA), WO Patent 2004/056610 (Inventor: Staargaard; Published: 2004 Jul. 8; Assignee: General Electric Company, USA) and US Patent Application 2003/0077409 (Inventor: Schnell; Published: 2003 Apr. 24) all appear to disclose a process and system for inserting a hydro-formed metal insert into a mold of a molding machine, and then partially encapsulating or overmolding the formed insert with a molding material (such as a plastic resin). This approach includes using different types of machines, one type for forming and another type for molding.
EP Patent 826,476 (Inventor: Buchholz; Published: 1998 Mar. 4; Assignee: Tecumseh Products Company, USA) appears to disclose loading and forming an insert (that is, a tube) in a single mold of a molding system, and then encapsulating or overmolding the insert with a molding material (such as a plastic resin). This approach includes performing the forming operation and the overmolding operation in the single mold.
An article titled Secondary Operations: Unique System Uses Press Motion As Punch and Die (published by Plastics World in September 1992, page 10) discloses a molding system having a mold. With the mold opened, a press operator loads a metal insert (that is a metal buss bar) into the mold. As a press closes and clamps, a punch and die mechanism pierces a slug in the insert, and then a nylon-based molding material is injected into the mold to overmold the insert. The forming operation and the overmolding operation are performed sequentially in the same mold.
A document (dated October 1989, titled ALPHA—Multi-processing Technology and published by Krauss Maffei of Germany), discloses the ALPHA molding system that appears to be an integration of several types of molding systems (such as, for example, a compression molding system, an injection molding system and/or a gas-pressure molding system). This arrangement appears to combine different molding materials into a molded article using different processes.